some pictures

Hey all,
sorry it has been so long! time seems to be flying by and everything is wrapping up. so the last time i wrote a blog was the mid.way point. like 2 or 3 weeks ago. ive been in good healthy which has been great. and only memebers of our team have been too sick to participate, and that was really bad.

the last week of ministry has been tough. too many tears

i finally had time to attach photos. maybe because i got up at 5 am to do so, so i saw the sunrise, the sky was all red before the sun has lifted, the orange ball of fire crosses the horizon around 6 15 ish. okay so ill explain the pictures a bit

1. this is dryed corn and the peel off the cornels as this little girl is doing. then they mash them up in a bowl thing with a huge wooden stick like 6 ft long. to make ngima, the staple bland food, we have it daily to everyother day. (hopefully not today tho) this is at the house i go for home visits. and im pretty sure that is the neighbor girl, related to my family, im sponsoring her older brother

2. dont show this to uncle ted. this is sugar cane, if you couldnt tell, and that is how you get to the good stuff. its an old taste and after a while its nausating. you have to bite off the outter shell then the inner part is sweet and you chew it then spit it out. this is in the back of the 3 ton truck on the way home from art class. im mgwayi where we do vbs. a girl gave me a piece that she was selling and i ended up feeding it like a mamma bird to the kids in my family at mgwayi.

3. these are my favorite girls in the art class, yes i have favorites, haha. it was hard leaving them this week, yesterday was our last day in their village, and once i started crying the one with the crazy hair did too and couldnt even look at us leaving. im gonna miss these girls alot. if you want to help this village in particular, there are 2 kids in my art class that are looking for sponsorship, this makes it possible for them to continue eating at the feed program (which is amazing) and taking classes like mine, and also going to school! let me know if you are interested so i can give you the info, it is a great thing that makes it possible for a child to eat for less than a dollar a day.

4 . this is laura and me, looking might toursity. haha. this is the part of the compound that the venture teams stay at, 5 star restort. we went to the market this day to buy the supplies for the staff apprication which happens to be today! she is wearing the skirt that all the women wear here, its called a chitingi, not sure how its spelled but it is used when you are working or what not to protect you clothes, i have 2 and wear them every day... need to buy another one asap! oh and its basically a piece of fabric wrapped around your legs, not very easy to walk in or esp get into the back of a truck with out showing your knees

5. this is my favorite boy in mgwayi. one day we were leavnig the village and he was hidding in this church with a friend and when we walked by they jumped up and screamed. super cute. and he hasnt said anything to me until yesterday, and it was see you later! maybe he understands unlike eveyother child that i really have no clue what you are sayinng to me. hhah. but i love him none the less

6. this is my favorite 2 girls. the older one i hold every time we are there and she never lets me put her down, and the other one is her younger sister this was from wed. and that is the first time the younger one let me hold her. the 6th week! i taught the older girl i love you. and have it on video. so cute! the older girl is p'empero and she was the one we gave transport money to ( $3.33) be able to get to the hosptial. and she got better. praise the Lord. and the other is elena.

7. dixon issac. the boy i am sponsoring. and he is crazy and i love him,. he is 8 i think and will be able to go to school, eat and get shoes through the sponsporship money. its crazy how much that dollar a day helps and how little it actually is back home.

8. this is the last day of the art class with the older kids. we had music and did a short lesson with tissue paper. this is the books they have been using for most of the lessons and the little packages of supplies we gave them. they were so happy to recieve these books and asked about them every class on when they could take them home. im so happy i managed to pack all of them despite the weight issue. it was great being able to get to know these faces and hear their stories. on the last class i found out one of my girls was in standard 7meaning she could speak english fairly well and has been holding out on us. she is in green standing in the back, eliza. and 2 weeks ago we found out another boy was in her same grade and he had been holding our too! Ozi, the one looking like a squatting chicken in blue in the front row.

okay miss you all its 6 15 and its tea time and journaling too
miss you all see you soon!

xoxo les

Mid.Way!

Hey all!

Now you know the daily routine... here are some stories from the week. 

Today marked our mid.way mark in terms of weeks i think... not really sure. too many days to count... A fun story from today, i was scheduled to make breakfast, but seeing its malawi there was no power, no gas, and no water so i ended up making scramble eggs on a b.b.q. that the cooks put inside the kitchen. quite the experience, not really sure why they put in inside, when in rome. 

On Wednesday afternoons we go in to the nearby village, Mgwayi, and we were doing our sports, games outreach-vbs, and as i approached the house that i visit twice a week, the 2 year old girl, Pempero, and she came running towards open armed. It was just one of the many signs to see God's hand working in the village. 

I dont remember if i told this story last post... but during teaching art last week, normally we have 2 translator, except last thursday we had none, it was amazing to see how much can be said in silence. needless to say their projects came out amazing. 

the last story or comment i have is the amazing interns that are here, each one of us can connect on different levels, and are encouraging to one another. it sounds cheezy but its true, even though we may not all be best friends when we return home, we will be able to say how we helped another intern grow and change.

my eyes are opening up to what i want to do in my life and where i want to my feet to rest. this is an experience that many have told me will change my life, and each day im seeing that happen more and more...

hope everyone is doing well! missing seeing your faces!

xoxo Les

p.s. email me! leslieannmurray@gmail.com

First few weeks

Muli Bwangi family and friends!!!...please forward to friends...

i arrived safely i think 2 and half weeks ago from my 2 day flight, and jet lag has finally left me!

hope that all is well back in the states...i havent recieved email, so no news is always good news. excuse my lack of typing ability because this keyboard is a spaz...and sorry its so long.

okay so the low down on what i have been doing across the world. still hasnt set in how far i am from home. today i was picturing that globe we used to have and playing that game where you spin it and where your finger stops that where you will go. i guess i really liked that game. cuz i think im living it. malawi is so different than home, i would say amazing, like every place i travel but that isnt descriptive.... to make a better picture..

starting with the first week here, we had cultural training, hence why i havent emailed since i got here. weird to see this thing despite it beeing from 1998, but whatever. haha. okay so once we arrived we went dirrectly to the childrens orphanage to have a welcome celemony. pretty amazing video footage. then the next day or something. we went to the market to buy food for a malawi family for a meal and the money which was less than 15 buck should buy a family of 6 a whole days worth of food. we were sent with a list in chichewa, no translators, just national interns (from malawi) to keep us out of danger... anyways we went to town on public transport and searched for food items while still keeping in buget. pretty eye opening experience. or nose opening due to the emense amount of fish kept on tables and smelled awful and when we went to buy them, they seller offered for us to taste it!! what!! no thanks!...and yeah we were supposed to buy a live chicken, our group but the others did.... and then we killled it back at our village for dinner so now i am a vegetarian..(also the food isnt what we'd call gormet, but good). which has been hard seeing every meal has meat and rice. thank God for rice! that was the bulk of the culture shock, i mean training...

our weeks are planned out, so MWF we walk to the village next to our compound called Mgwayi (yep they love the 3 consants in a row) for outreach minesty with the children: play games, sing songs, give a message, small groups.. like VBS.. then on TU and Thurs morning we also go the same village to meet with the same family each week. mine consists of a g-ma and g-pa who have always been gone... and 7 kids that stay with them in a house the size of a short full mattress but no mattress just dirt. so its been hard to experience their lives and so meaningful, prolly my favorite thing yet, i have been sititng with their daughter who is 30 max and helping her mend clothes, and playing with the abundant amount of children every where. that village over flows with smiles every time we enter and never ceases, its amazing to be able to see such joy when they have so little. Tue and Thurs afternoon ive been teaching art with Sarah to two diff age groups, younger on tues older on thurs. its been interesting to see how little they know about basic art, and the fact depite age difference they are on the same learning level... its been amazing have 2 translators each time, to help with games, explanation and flat out keeping 20 kids under control. however this week was a little diff with the older ones. seeing BOTH translators were sick. so sarah and i managed to teach a lesson and have the kids be sucessful with only a few basic phrases. the key one being, sit down (cali pansi)!

i dont know if you all know that FLood church has a another church here that they started but we have been able to go there which has been amazing! and a comfort in the mist of the chaos here. and we also have been blessed with going to a church in the same village as the art lessons (mtsiliza), also some more great videos...

the 4th of july was also celebrated here so i hope you all celbrated it there too. we even had awesome fireworks, not exactly the same laws as Cali!!! also a team of 40 from florida arrived that day and have been here since but are leaving tomorrow to be replaced with 2 more teams of like 15 or so. its nice to see some new faces every once in a while.

a wrap up. dont forget about my blog leslieinmalawi.blogspot.com ...this will be there now and hopefully more stories will be posted when i have time. but there is a general intern one too malawi2008interns.blogspot.com

miss you all!!!!! email me! so i can hear some news from home, or any news seeing i havent touched a newspaper in 3 weeks almost!! ahh!

okay love you!

xoxo leslie

Malawi Prep

Hello All!

Donations have been fruitful, Praise God! Thank you to all my supporters. This blog will hopeful be updated as frequently as possible, but seeing that we are in rural Africa i cant make any promises. Also three of my friends from San Diego and Flood will be having blogs too!

 Rachel Burton: transformationmalawi.blogspot.com

Sarah Pea Prieto: coming soon...

Karin Holmgren: karinsmalawiadventures.blogspot.com

Thanks! 

In Him, Leslie